VfB Stuttgart defender Danny Collinge: IB Graduate

‘While we have become accustomed to foreign teenagers moving thousands of miles away from home to England in stockpiled Premier League academies, the reverse is somewhat of a novelty.

The widely-accepted narrative goes that English youngsters are too mollycoddled to risk a move abroad and, when they do reach the age for first-team football, they are happier settling for a place on the bench at a club near home.

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“I wanted the opportunity to pursue the educational side of my life because that’s something I value dearly,” said the now 19-year-old. “School has always been something I was quite good at and I wanted to always have a plan B.

“In England that opportunity wasn’t there for me, but in Germany I was given the opportunity to go to an international school and study for an International Baccalaureate. That would secure me a good back-up plan if football didn’t work out for me.”‘